Info concerning the numbers of users

[Æthlstan]

This is more pre-alpha than alpha, imho. And Im fine with that. I consider alpha to be a game with most or all features it will have at launch, being tested by a relatively small group, while bugs are found and polishing is done.

Beta is "hey we are pretty sure the game is done but we wanna test everything and get input from fresh eyes"

Given that its perfectly fine to leave and come back every now and again. But feedback and suggestions is part of alpha testing. The devs make a better game with our help.

This issue stems from a larger issue. Ganking in general.

I can understand multiple gankers trying to corral traders. That doesnt bother me. As a trader you gotta avoid known ganking spots

What bothers me is that people want more PvP. I want nore PvP. But most people I see out there will only PvP if they have unfair advantages. The folks who like a gentlemans' fight between equal odds are laughed at.

"We're here for your ship bro, we dont actually want a fight"

"Even odds? Skill? Nah, we'll compensate by doing a 7v1"

Not sure whats exciting about all that but for the more lone wolf types like myself, it makes it very hard to justify going out looking for fair fights when you know no one is around who wants to give you one.

Sure, theres the duel system. But thats never attracted me. I prefer to find my fights on the open sea. More immersive I guess. Now I just dont bother unless Im going out to do port battles.

There seem to be a lot of players who feel like me, as in the few months I have been playing, single, or 2v1 combat, or even BR fights, what have you, seem to happen a lot less, and most people look for odds that put them firmly on the side of victory.

Since people are now avoiding fights like this we see more people exploiting the system to draw in people like me, who will let themselves get tagged if it looks like doable odds.

Relevant quotes from other posts that apply.

People dont want to actually fight, theyd rather you surrender as soon as you see 5 superior ships arrayed against you

People leave due to to these kinds of players, or stop PvPing

People complain about little PvP.

Nations need to either attack or defend something every night. Play aggressively. Strike first. Dont wait to get attacked, focus on taking an enemy port. Put your screen fleet on defense duty if the enemy counter attacks.

Dont sit and wait for hours if you want a healthy faction. This is what causes you to lose players

There are things in this game that are largely player problems. The people who farm player ships now because they cant farm NPC ships. These players dont care about PvP they just want more throwaway ships for port battles, or they want to stock all their outposts with exceptional 1 durbs.

Faction leaders are a lot of times self appointed egotists, and fight anyone who tries to bring a different perspective.

Player issues.

Yes, the admins can add something to try to combat these problems but largely, the root of a lot of these problems are players being selfish, lazy humans, control freaks (and horrible strategists at the same time), etc etc.

This could be solved with a larger playerbase, so that one clan leader cant claim dominance over a faction by right of "i rule the most people so do what I say"

The diplomacy and political system will go a long way to helping that as well.

Instead of continuing and listing everything I possibly can, lemme reiterate: This is pre-alpha. The game was basically World of Warships in the Age of Sail 6 months ago. All this open world stuff is brand new.and YOU are helping to shape it.

If you cant accept the slow content dribble as the developers slowly manufacture their game, maybe you shouldnt be alpha testing. Some of the best games have taken years and years to make. We are all lucky enough these guys are letting us play the game and watch them build it, rather than have us wait for another X years before we can touch it.

Edited June 4, 2016 by Æthlstan

[fox2run]

Yes players are lazy. They are not used to use the amount of time required to keep this game alive. Maybe they want to have battles right away after turning their pc on. Maybe they have other things in their life than using hour after hour waiting for a port battle or in a screening fleet.... Maybe a developer could take notice of this and make gaming mechanisms that actually gave players a non-waiting experience. I mean, other games did that.

[Hethwill]

Missions have Small and Large Battles, instant action. I do it sometimes, many others do. Maybe get a group going and make a thread for it ? Would be nice to have some schedule going and fill them up, such as Olav does with the Trafalgar at Saturdays.

[Æthlstan]

Thing about this game is that it is based so much so on real life that you need sound naval tactics and strategy to win. If you are sitting around waiting for a port battle to happen, your leaders are doing something wrong. If your assault fleet has entered the battle and there are no enemy players trying to join, but your screen fleet is still sitting there, your leaders are doing something wrong. Screen fleets are all about constant small engagements. If you arent getting those small engagements you dont need to be screening.

Again. Player issue. Bad strategists in your clan/nation. Not a game issue.

[Sir Texas Sir]

as i have stated many times to much down time in this game for it have any big numbers

i would say 95% of all people who quit is cause of the ow sailing taking to long when most people only have 1 hr to play a nite you can get nothing done in this game so why even bother so they quit

 

and with the dev numbers showing less than 10% of all plays have done a port battle the ow it the biggest  thing in this game and it is also the worst at the same time 

i say a month ago less than 400 would be playing on pvp1 and we have at 9pm est less than that now and i venture to say in one more month i maybe only 250 unless they merge the servers then it will still be only 400 game is not growing and will never grow with the way the dev want their game so question is do they change they ideas or keep them 

if they keep them then this is the most people you will ever see in this game for now on

10% have not done a PB?  That doesn't surprise me one bit. I asked how you found out and was pissed a comment where some one called me a spy for not knowing that with how long I been in the game and my rank.  NO I HAVE NOT DONE A PB. I only been in PvP twice and both times was ganks by mulit players in much better higher tier ships.  Many of the players are very rude so I just do my own thing.  Hate to say this prob has chased off a lot of new players.  I only pop back on when a new patch comes out and for a short time.  I'm only Lt Commador and level 18 crafting cause of it.   That and having to go from EU server I played on because of the larger population from start to the US server when it got more popular and with only a basic trader sucked.

 

As for the ganking, why not make surrender give you a chance to not loose your ship, but they can take your cargo.  This was how it happend many a times in the age of saling.  They couldn't take all the cargo so they would just take what they can.  Give them an option to grab the best loot and keep going.   

 

I did have a clan come out today and ask if I would like to stop by the TS and meet the players and join them to get help.   After all this time solo playing I'm thinking of doing so.

 

I think they should up the buildings allowed to 10 instead of just 5.   This will help keep folks from having to resort to mulit accounts.  Hell POTBS had more building options and I was running 5 accounts on that game cause of the crafting.  I agree with the travel time needs to be speed up a bit.  It is a big turn off on a game after spending an hour or so to get something and than be ganked and loose it all.   Oh and on that note why did I get sent to a far away port when I had two outpost close to where I got sunk at?

Edited June 5, 2016 by Sir Texas SIr

[MitchXD]

http://steamcharts.com/app/311310thats basically all.

[Glazo]

10% have not done a PB?  That doesn't surprise me one bit. I asked how you found out and was pissed a comment where some one called me a spy for not knowing that with how long I been in the game and my rank.  NO I HAVE NOT DONE A PB. I only been in PvP twice and both times was ganks by mulit players in much better higher tier ships.  Many of the players are very rude so I just do my own thing.  Hate to say this prob has chased off a lot of new players.  I only pop back on when a new patch comes out and for a short time.  I'm only Lt Commador and level 18 crafting cause of it.   That and having to go from EU server I played on because of the larger population from start to the US server when it got more popular and with only a basic trader sucked.

 

As for the ganking, why not make surrender give you a chance to not loose your ship, but they can take your cargo.  This was how it happend many a times in the age of saling.  They couldn't take all the cargo so they would just take what they can.  Give them an option to grab the best loot and keep going.   

 

I did have a clan come out today and ask if I would like to stop by the TS and meet the players and join them to get help.   After all this time solo playing I'm thinking of doing so.

 

I think they should up the buildings allowed to 10 instead of just 5.   This will help keep folks from having to resort to mulit accounts.  Hell POTBS had more building options and I was running 5 accounts on that game cause of the crafting.  I agree with the travel time needs to be speed up a bit.  It is a big turn off on a game after spending an hour or so to get something and than be ganked and loose it all.   Oh and on that note why did I get sent to a far away port when I had two outpost close to where I got sunk at?

 

If i remember correctly devs published some players data about April. It was like 20.000 players logged in at last once during April, but only 800 participated in any PB. I dont know if i remember it corectly, u have to dig in forum if u wanna confirm it or ask devs. That was argument from devs that PBs are not so important.

http://steamcharts.com/app/311310thats basically all.

 

Yup, sadly. Add to this recent negative reviews on steam from players with 500-2000 hours played NA and u'll have whole package of current players attitude.

[Æthlstan]

A big factor in the player drop is the end of pvp2. It all started with butthurt players moving to pvp1. Then that became the thing to do if your faction fell apart...until there wasnt enough people to make it worth it.

Many who made the switch didnt stay. Too hard to start over, and theres talk of a map wipe and/or server merge soon. Most of the people who played on pvp2, including almost everyone I know, are waiting for 1 or both of those things to happen.

We had 2 active servers with an average of 1k players each. 1 server died. Half the players are gone. Coincidence?

[ITFHunter]

A big factor in the player drop is the end of pvp2. It all started with butthurt players moving to pvp1. Then that became the thing to do if your faction fell apart...until there wasnt enough people to make it worth it.

Many who made the switch didnt stay. Too hard to start over, and theres talk of a map wipe and/or server merge soon. Most of the people who played on pvp2, including almost everyone I know, are waiting for 1 or both of those things to happen.

We had 2 active servers with an average of 1k players each. 1 server died. Half the players are gone. Coincidence?

 

 2 weeks ago PVP one had 1,2k player @ prime time and now it has only around 800-850. so i don't see any coincidence. PVP one lost around 30% of there player in 2 weeks

[Hethwill]

I see Dayz, Rust, Squad, and other games during alpha stages with exactly the same population bounces, so your point is ?

 

Some good (historical) games were launched and many players are sinking their teeth into them - Hearts of Iron 4 for example.

[ITFHunter]

You compare a strategy multiplayer game which is not realistic (it's balanced or should be) with an MMO simulator? Your point is?

All your other "examples" are games which have max 120 per server/session and aren't MMO and, except Squad (don't know that game, so don't know what/how it is played), they all have more than 4k average user who are still playing it even in the worst time (4k/120 -> 33,333333333333333333333333333333 server/session).

You said something what is true. "Some good (historical) games were launched and many players are sinking their teeth into them" <-- yep but they are not realistic, they are balanced for fun purpose. And, to be honest, I'll buy HoI IV after the first patch is provided since its an awesome game

[Hethwill]

Squad is arena based, modern warfare, arma lite mode. Born out of Project Reality mod team.

 

Hearts of Iron 4 is launched, is not in alpha stage. And it is a nice strategic simulation. It is not balanced at all.

 

Naval Action is really nice for an Alpha. Highly playable and enduring. Every session is different ( for me at least ). I like the experience and review it with extremely good gaming hobby time spent for its market value. Seeing much more content down the road I see it bouncing population once more.

 

I am sure, very very sure that steam charts does not sees the steam-offline players. Only the online ones.

[mouse of war]

I guess there are many reasons why people are leaving the game, but we do know they are not being replaced - and that is bad news.

 

So I feel that the devs need to find out why.

 

I used to be bothered by the pirate mechanic and that perhaps is one reason people might leave. But what are the others and what can the devs do to fix them?

Enemies hiding in battle exit screens is currently a massive issue - last night we had a dozen players waiting over an hour for enemies to come out. That is a lot of boredom

 

This weekend just gone. Less than 1000 online at peak.

Next weekend?

[z4ys]

Its summer sometimes i go out and enjoy the sun

[Admiral_Of_The_Fleet]

Will also need to consider the amount of alt accounts used for crafting hours so will need to drop numbers even more, my guess is 1000 players if that without counting alts, the steam sales will just be players already in game buy another copy for more crafting hours so the game has quite the stalemate with the player base atm and when i ask players about why they have reduced their hours there seems to be the common responses coming through.

I know several people who have aleast 3 or more ALT accounts

And one person has 5

[jodgi]

last night we had a dozen players waiting over an hour for enemies to come out. That is a lot of boredom

That is self imposed suffering. Just go hunt something else.

[surfimp]

I have 400hrs in Naval Action and have had a ton of fun. If I never play another minute of the game, I'll feel I easily got my $40 worth.

With that said, I do intend to keep playing, even though I'm taking a small break at the moment. It's my first MMO and I quite like it, but I'm not the type of person to devote myself to any one game - or even video games themselves - for huge amounts of time. I sprint and play a lot and then take a break. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I hope to see the world of NA continue to evolve, especially the economy. I see that as one of the most important things to making all the rest of it "work" - i.e. to give meaning to all the other activities, including conquest. EVE has been able to do it, and I believe NA will too, in its own way and time.

[Zisme]

pretty sad when no one is streaming the game anymore...

[buttski]

It's pretty concerning seeing the playerbase dropping like a landslide. The devs need to understand that a game is not based around the developer but the players...

Edited June 8, 2016 by buttski

[Justme]

It's pretty concerning seeing the playerbase dropping like a landslide. The devs need to understand that a game is not based around the developer but the players...

Think it just went from 1200 to just barely over 1k at peak time.

Just how long does peak time last as well, 1-2 hours tops.

[Jean LaPointe]

There are a LOT of ASSUMPTIONS being made here. None of us are working as developers, we do not see where we are exactly and where we are going, and when we plan to be there. We DO play the current configuration of the game and state our OPINIONS, which is important for the devlopers.

Why someone plays or quits is an indvidual decision and they are as many as they are varied. There is no one reason, no one matrix that show really what has happened that we can have eyes on.

Yes, it is fun to speculate and we all think we know the answer; when really we do not have a clue. We all know someone who didn't like this or that and won't come back until they do what I want to make the game better for me, etc..etc..

The best we can do is play, enjoy what we have to work with, and enlighten any issues we run up against.

What it appears here now is that we are pissing all over the place and the only thing we are getting from it are wet and soggy shoes.

[CharlieZulu]

This game probably wont make it to release....im starting to feel like its another "DayZ" or "ARK Survival" only the devs come out with an update once in a bluemoon here...

 

Very sad to see the numbers dropping off like they have been. 

 

More marketing would help...

[hellshammy]

I shall use my copy skills to provide my feedback on this topic from a same one posted with the same :

 

I am really sad to see how much of the player base are inmature adults that really can not stop and think about this game with a grain of salt.You bought a Early acces game,if you are not aware what that means feel free use google and other means at your hand to educate yourself.The game is not failing or dead,player base is still higher then half a year ago and more.This is not a finished product,player base does not show anything since do to a smaller number of things you can do or better said options people will take breaks from the game etc.The idea is for you as a player as this state of the game to enjoy a bit of the game,test the features with your gameplay and provide feedback for wich you will be rewarded with you high rank WHEN the game is done,BIG headstart both in exp and knowledge and probably a few ships that you will get as reedems since the Dev team arent a bunch of cheap skates.

Finnaly i would like to apologise for my english and also state it 1 more time that you are not doing anything with these kinds of post but shaming yourself,your intelect and the fact you are not aware how this concept works.

Ty and have a nice day!

 

 

I believe most of our player base are adults,simply to the fact the game is not cheap and it requires some IQ to play it.

With that on mind,i would ask for you guys to act accordingly

 

(insert dutch klingon rank i cant write) Hellshammy

 

[Hethwill]

At its basis, it takes two to have fun in NA. One is walking away with the prize.

[victor]

I am really sad to see how much of the player base are inmature adults that really can not stop and think about this game with a grain of salt.

 

To be honest I am much sadder for the fact that the playerbase seems to be slowly abandoning the game, whichever could be the reason.

 

I would prefer playing in a full server of "any kind" of players (I do not mind arguing about others' maturity) rather then in an empty server of "mature" people.

Edited June 9, 2016 by victor